Mega-trade of Kyrie Irving, Isaiah Thomas doesn’t change much in East

The first few seconds of your first earthquake are disconcerting. You don’t know what’s happening. The undulation, the noise, the inability to focus — it’s all disconcerting. But once you’ve been in a few, you know the feeling. You don’t relax, but you don’t panic, either.

Such is another week in the dramatic life of LeBron James. Another ‘quake? Big deal. It’s like he lives in a village called Frackingtown.

Guys go down next to James cheap NBA jerseys from China year after year, yet very little has stopped the party since 2007 — and not at all since 2010. And while a whole lot of people got their knickers twisted when Cleveland temporarily braked the deal, the end result was as good as anyone in Northern Ohio could expect, given the complete lack of leverage the Cavaliers had once Irving’s trade demands and unhappiness became public. (No, Koby Altman’s future as a GM isn’t ruined; everyone around the league knows the straight jacket every Cleveland exec is in, with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert driving the bus. Hey, he paid for the bus; he can drive it if he wants sports jerseys cheap. Altman did a hell of a job getting what he got.)

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Yet rarely have the two best teams in a conference made a trade with cheap jerseys wholesale one another the summer after, jangling up all the pieces from their five-game Eastern Conference finals series just a few months ago.

Thomas may miss the start of training camp. He says he’ll be fine eventually, but can’t say for sure he’ll be on the court at the end of the month. But there is no doubt in the James camp that whether Thomas is ready for cheap custom NBA jerseys training camp or not, or the start of the regular season or not, James will still be on the last East team standing in June 2018.

But that doesn’t mean this whole rigmarole with Irving sits well in JamesWorld. You don’t chase Michael Jordan’s ghost with fresh new faces; you need grunts like the guy who went all over France looking for Private Ryan. Irving had earned his stripes and James was expecting a grand pursuit of Paul George or Jimmy Butler this summer to close the gap with the Golden State Warriors, not losing one of his best teammates and having to scramble.

Playmakers like Jokic and Millsap cannot rise up from the second round without showing respect for the game plan. Without the pedigrees of explosive athleticism or a high Draft number, they’ve had to win over coaches and teammates along the way. Millsap’s reputation is renowned. Jokic’s is just now forming.

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“The great thing about Nikola is his unbelievable work ethic,” Connelly said. “Certainly, his game is not based on athleticism. It’s hard to believe how good he is when you look at him. We had a game in New York cheap Nike NBA authentic jerseys this year, we played really well, and I’m sitting there with a couple of our guys. They said, ‘Do you believe that guy just had 40 points?’ I can’t. So he’s kind of a relatable superstar.”

The Nuggets hope to see improvements in Jokic’s shooting (32.4 percent from the 3-point line last year) and in his defensive leadership. Both areas figure to be enhanced by the presence of Millsap.

A big-money acquisition so often changes the personality of a franchise, and not always for the better. In Denver, where the identity is embodied by a 22-year-old pass-first center, Millsap’s value will be judged very much on his ability to bring out the best NBA jerseys in Jokic.

“It’s hard to guard a moving ball,” Connelly said. “We can’t play like other teams because the roster is a little atypical. I need to see the other guys around Nikola build into it. We’re not going to catch and hold, catch and watch. The quicker the ball customized NBA jerseys cheap moves, the quicker the decisions are, the more successful we’ve tended to be.”

In a league that is falling in love with ball movement, the Nuggets are emerging as unlikely trend-setters.